Old Roots and New Beginnings: Reinventing Immigration Clinics in Different Places and Spaces After the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Session Type: Lightning Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Yosemite A

Floor: Ballroom Level

The COVID-19 pandemic both required and inspired a reset in clinical legal education. Faced with a world forever changed by the pandemic and other concurrent global crises – including armed conflict and climate change – long-time clinicians were faced with multiple practical and pedagogical challenges. Immigration clinicians, in particular, needed to decide how to best respond to the evolving needs of clients and students in an increasingly uncertain world. This discussion will explore the way in which long-time immigration clinicians responded to the post-pandemic landscape in their clinic design, pedagogy, and methods of instruction. The panelists each founded and directed greatly anticipated new immigration clinics at public law schools. These clinics began in the midst of the pandemic. The panelists will discuss the factors that they considered while making decisions about clinic focus and student work in a constantly-changing environment. The panelists will also share the ways in which their prior experience founding and directing immigration clinics pre-pandemic impacted the decisions made in designing their new clinics, and the similarities and differences in their manner of instruction.